The present invention relates to an automatic medicine packaging machine that packages each dose of medication. Specifically, the present invention relates to method and apparatus for inspecting manual dispensing tray of the automatic medicine packaging machine that stably inspect dispensing error of the manual dispensing tray due to manual dispensing by a pharmacist and that prevent the inferiority of packaging due to the dispensing error of the manual dispensing tray.
In general, an automatic medicine packaging machine continuously packages tablet-type medications that are dispensed per dose. The construction and operation of an automatic medicine packaging machine are explained as follows referring to FIG. 3, FIG. 4, and FIG. 5: the automatic medicine packaging machine includes a body 100 having a plurality of tablet cassettes 101 that is built on a shelf in the upper part of the machine, a tablet dispenser 200 inside the body 100, a hopper 300 that is constructed below the tablet cassettes 101 and the tablet dispenser 200, a printing unit 400, and a sealing unit 500 that feeds and seals medication envelopes on which instruction labels are printed by the printing unit 400.
The operation of the tablet cassettes 101, the printing unit 400, and the sealing unit 500 are controlled by a controller C that is installed inside the body 100. The controller C operates to make a package of each dose of medication by controlling the tablet cassettes 101, the printing unit 400, and the sealing unit 500 according to prescription data inputted from a computer server S.
A manual dispensing tray 201 which is installed in the upper part of the tablet dispenser 200 has a plurality of compartments to which medications may be dispensed, and it can be operated to be ejected from the front of the body 100. To each compartment, manual dispensing is made by a pharmacist for tablets which are hard to be provided automatically because they are not housed in the tablet cassettes 101 or for half-tablets which are hard to be supplied by the tablet cassettes 101.
A pharmacist manually compounds prescription medications by dispensing to each compartment while the manual dispensing tray 201 is in the state of being pulled out from the front of the body 100. When the manual dispensing is finished, medications will be fallen into the tablet dispenser 200 after residing inside the body 100 and be discharged to the hopper 300 automatically.
However, the above prior art has a disadvantage as follows: manual dispensing is done by a pharmacist, so that it is hard to inspect dispensing error due to wrong dispensing. In addition, it gives rise to the inferiority of packaging due to the dispensing error of the manual dispensing tray.